Sharing the Bed

I have bragged to many people about how my kids sleep through the night (at least 8 hours) by 7 weeks old. It's nice. Really nice.

But,

I paid the price for bragging when Morgan turned one. She woke up nightly with night terrors. Luckily, she grew out of it within a few months and we were back to peaceful nights.

At age two, once we could get Morgan to stay in her room (see here), she slept pretty soundly through the night. She and Sadie never seemed to bother each other and once again, when Sadie was about 7 weeks old, we were back to un-interrupted sleep at nights. Nice.

Jump ahead now to age three. Morgan wakes up in the middle of the night and whines (think a dog whimpering at your back door) until either Brian or I comes in to their room. (Most of the time, Sadie sleeps through it). Then, when we go to leave, she starts crying, "No! Sleep with me! I can't sleep by myself! Come cuddle with me!" At this point, I leave and go grumpily back to bed, but soft-hearted Brian usually lays with her for a bit.

Long story short, I am getting so tired of her coming into our room and trying to climb into bed or hearing crying from down the hall (mothers unfortunately can't sleep through this). So, I tried something new a couple nights ago.

When I went into her room late one night, and Morgan asked me to lay with her, I suggested she climb into bed with Sadie. I was worried this would backfire and in a few minutes I might have TWO kids up, crying for Mommy and not going to sleep. But, it was worth the chance. The next morning, I went into the girls room and there they were, laying in Sadie's bed, happy and giggling!

So, I tried it again last night. Actually, Morgan asked and she started in bed with Sadie. It did take a few times of reminding them to be quiet (I remember my dad hollering up the stairs at us kids many times), but once they were asleep, we didn't have any problems! It was fabulous to sleep through the night again!

Easter 2010

In an attempt to get a picture of the girls in their Easter dresses, each time I said "three", Sadie came running to the camera.

So, I tried snapping on "two," at which point Morgan decided to jump.

5 minutes later, this is the best we could get. Best friends--they always love to hold hands.

Don't mind the snowsuits. When Brian hid the eggs early in the morning, it was freezing! So, he bundled them up, just in case.

I loved this. After she had combed the backyard an extra time checking for eggs, Morgan shrugged her shoulders and said, "Umm. I think that's all now." Then, she headed back into the house.

Sadie, blowing kisses! MMWAAAHH!

Sadie got a barrel of monkeys in her Easter basket. She tried filling her shoes with them, but got discouraged when her feet wouldn't fit!

Sadie Bug got sent to time out. She kept asking, "why?" when I told her it wasn't time to have a treat. Her reply: "yummy."

Because I found this:

While Morgan was emptying the eggs, Sadie was sampling them.

I thought I had everything under control and could stay on top of my children's messes. That is, until Sadie started walking, climbing, running, etc.!! She thought the kitchen floor was a better location for the laundry room rug!

Happy Spring!

For All the Moms

My grandma sent me these two Baby Blues comics a couple months ago. I've been meaning to post them, so here they are.

1. This one must have had Sadie in mind. (In fact, I just caught Sadie eating her peanut butter sandwich ON TOP of the table. I've decided her booster just gives her a little more help in climbing...)

2. And, wh0 hasn't felt like this some days? I know there are plenty of times that I need the "time out", not the kids!

Whew! What a Week!

I didn't help Sadie out of this mess, and guess what? She hasn't dumped out the laundry and climbed into the basket all week!

Morgan's dessert request last night: Peanut Butter Cookies. They were super easy and DELICIOUS!! (As if this cute smile and messy face doesn't give it away!) For the recipe, click here.

We LOVE springtime at our house! Costco had strawberries on sale, so we bought some. They're HUGE and delicious!

For dinner, we made navajo tacos. Brian said they were good, but I don't think I'll ever make them as good as my mother-in-law. Every time we visit Brian's family, I request her navajo tacos! They are the BEST!

Anyway, the bread recipe we used is enormous (I even halved it this time!), so after making fry bread and dinner rolls to freeze for later, we still had extra bread dough. So, we experimented by making "healthy" (healthier) doughnuts. (As if anything fried can be considered healthy, we did use a whole wheat dough recipe--doesn't that count?) For the bread recipe, click here. They were so yummy, after trying one, Brian and I "hid" them from the girls so we wouldn't have to share! (Plus, they had Peanut Butter Cookies for dessert! So did we...)

Friday night, for our date, we went to Red Robin. If you don't remember Morgan's obsession with this place, click here. So, we surprised the girls and brought home a balloon for each of them. Sadie loves "Noons!" (Sorry, the video is sideways!)

And, I know everyone else is ready for winter to be over, but we got another storm last week, (and, it's in the 70's this week, so it's already gone!) but here's a few pictures and a question for Dad: Even though you like to brag about your beautiful golfing weather, we have a question for you:

When's the last time you built a snowman???

Have a great week!

Snack Time

The other day, I realized I hadn't given the girls their afternoon snack. Here's how the conversation with Morgan went:

Me: I forgot to give you girls a snack!

Morgan: I already had my afternoon snack.

Me: Morgan, you had M & M's. They're not healthy.

Morgan: Yeah, but I ate them.

And, she wouldn't eat a real snack because in her mind, she had already had one! Oh well!

Telephone

The old-fashioned wrapping paper roll seemed to be just the thing this afternoon.

Farewell Winter...sort of

Yesterday, we had weather like this:



65 degrees. We went to the park, The girls were in their summer clothes (unfortunately for me, very fortunate for her, it meant Morgan could wear her Tinkerbell outfit. Will she ever outgrow it??? I hid it the last 6 months and she reminded me it's in the basement and I needed to get it out for the springtime weather)

And, today(the last official day of winter), we have weather like this:



So we've been doing alot of this:




This is from "Mater and the Ghostlight" on the Cars DVD. Morgan watches everytime before she watches Cars. Sadie likes it too, as you can see.




And this:




But my favorite part of the day so far has been this:

When this girl hears music, she dances! She "dances" in her car seat, the grocery cart, even Sacrament meeting! (Don't worry it's much more mellow at church)

Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be sunny and nice again! Welcome Spring! We've missed you!

Odds and Ends from Our Week

Morgan built a birdhouse at the Home Depot kids workshop last Saturday and wanted to paint it when we got home. I was very impressed at how focused and neat she was while we painted! She is very proud of her project and displays it proudly on her dresser.

Morgan did this all by herself:She uses EVERY PIECE of train track when she plays trains (I can't even do that!). She's even learned that in order to use the bilibos as tunnels, she has to make a curve instead of a straight line.

And Sadie did this all by herself: I now know that a quiet Sadie during naptime isn't always a good thing. I cracked open the door to see if she was asleep and saw this, so I grabbed the camera. When I opened the door to take the picture, she just looked up with her cute little grin and said, "Cheese!" And, then, she had to put every last item of clothing back into the dresser.

Sadie loves playing with the water doodle!

I had to include this picture because she just looks so precious! (Plus, when she falls asleep in the car, I know we won't have a problem like the one above during naptime!)

Sadie's Getting in the Cougar Spirit!

I just love Sadie's little dance she does! (And her delayed cheer at the end!)

When Brian started at the very beginning of the song, Morgan wouldn't sing. She said, "I'm not a Cougar, Daddy. I don't go to BYU yet." So, it looks like his brainwashing is having a positive influence on the girls...

Oregon

(We've been home for an entire week now, and I've had NO time to post pricures, but I guess the good thing is that I'm finally able to document our trip.)

Last weekend, we (the girls) went to Oregon to visit my brother and his family. They have two adorable little kids.

Mindy took us to a Children's Museum (the Gilbert House) which consisted of a musuem both inside and outside of 3 historical buildings in Salem. I have to say, I was a little skeptical at first (wondering how they would have room to put kid-friendly exhibits in), but it was AMAZING! Next time you visit, make sure you go!

Here, the girls are having "tea".

Sadie liked the giant chess board. Too bad I don't know how to play so she just got to hold the pieces,

Morgan and Elaena loved exploring in the ENORMOUS outdoor playground. Seriously, it's HUGE!

Here's the guys, stopping for a quick smile!

Sadie loved going down the long, long tube slides and I wasn't a big fan over and over and over. So, Brandon was kind enough to squeeze down with her a few times.

Of course, no trip ANYWHERE would be complete if our girls couldn't play with trains. They were in heaven when they found the train room!

Isn't this a cool slide? Sadie must have gone at least a dozen times!

Here's Sadie and Jacob peparing for their great dinosaur dig!

And, here they are again (with Mindy, too!) counting cookies on the wall. It's magnetic, so you put the cookies in and press a button and it punches them all out so you can start over! Pretty cool!

Here's proof that I didn't send my girls on an airplane by themselves! I went to Oregon, too!

Here we are making giant bubbles with the girls. This particular room was very wet and soapy! It seemed like I washed my hands for 5 minutes to get the soap off!

Sadie had so much fun in the bubble room, I could have washed an entire load of laundry using the soap in her shirt! So, Jakey let her borrow his sweatshirt. What a nice guy!

Sadie enjoying her blueberry pancakes. I put A LOT of blueberries in them and they were VERY MESSSY!

Elaena has quite the princess dress up collection and Morgan and Sadie were envious. They loved playing "princess"!

Morgan always offered to help feed Jacob a bottle.

We had lots of fun! Thanks for letting us come visit, Brandon, Mindy, Elaena, and Jacob!